Q&A with Diane Josefowicz

From my Q&A with Diane Josefowicz, author of The Great Houses of Pill Hill:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Great Houses of Pill Hill is a novel about an interior decorator who inadvertently winds up investigating the murder of her marquee client, a surgeon who lives with his wife in a grand mansion in an expensive neighborhood nicknamed Pill Hill because, historically, many doctors either lived or had offices there.

Since the book has been published, I've heard from many people who also live on or near a Pill Hill. It turns out, quite a few neighborhoods have that nickname, and they have a similar historical connection with medicine and medical professionals.

For a long time, the novel's working title was The Ministry of the Interior, which is also the name of the heroine's interior design firm. But this working title directed the reader's attention to the wrong things. As your question implies, a novel's title should place the reader directly in the scene of the story. In The Great Houses of Pill Hill, the murdered client is himself a doctor, and the local hospital plays a role in the plot, so...[read on]

Visit Diane Josefowicz's website.

Q&A with Diane Josefowicz.

--Marshal Zeringue